Abbott: Obamacare interferes with doctor-patient relationship

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott welcomed U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to the state capital with a scathing denunciation of the federal health care law, which she is promoting and which he unsuccessfully sued to stop.

“Obamacare is the wrong prescription for American health care, and I will never stop fighting against it,” Abbott said, joined by small business people and a doctor who also oppose the law at a company, the Texas Mailhouse.

One reason that Abbott gave for fighting the law came in response to a doctor who asked him from the audience about what Texas could do to keep the federal law from interfering with doctors’ judgment about the best way to treat their patients.

“You’re raising one of the more challenging components of Obamacare, and a hidden component in a way, and that is government is stepping in between the doctor-patient relationship and trying to tell you what you can and cannot do, interfering with both your conscience and your medical oath to take care of your patient,” said Abbott, who is campaigning to succeed Gov. Rick Perry.

That is similar to arguments raised against tighter abortion restrictions approved in special session, including a ban on the procedure at 20 weeks, along with stricter regulations on clinics and abortion-inducing drugs.

Asked the difference afterward, Abbott said, “The difference is that in the law that was passed in the state of Texas … what they’re trying to do is to give a woman five months to make a very tough decision, while at the same time get involved in trying to protect the unborn.”

Abbott also said that the federal law drives up the cost of doing business and increases regulation for employers, causing a reduction in hiring or in employees’ hours to avoid some of its dictates. He said some employees are losing jobs, others are having their hours cut and a number are losing their private insurance. He said, “Even Secretary Sebelius admitted that Obamacare will increase the cost of health care for some Americans.”

“We don’t want a sales job from Secretary Sebelius,” he said. “We just want employers and employees, doctors and hospitals to be able to continue doing their jobs.”

Abbott later told reporters that while he opposes the law, he supports provisions that prohibit denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions or a dollar amount on lifetime coverage, which he said could be addressed using a different approach.

My colleague David Saleh Rauf caught Sebelius’ appearance in Austin, where she said, : “The notion that the Affordable Care Act is driving up costs is not true.

It’s not accurate at all. It’s not accurate in the private market. It’s not accurate in the public market.”

US HHS Secretary Sebelius

She also said that the federal government is on track to have the marketplace for health care up and running on Oct. 1.

State Republican leaders who oppose provisions of the federal law that allow states to expand Medicaid to cover more people, have promoted the idea of a waiver to allow the state to run the program as it sees fit.

“We are eager to have discussions with Texas about a program that could look uniquely Texan. We have a number of state governors and legislators who have fashioned programs around Medicaid expansion that have a lot of flexibility and look very much like the programs in that state,” Sebelius said. “We are certainly open to those discussions but as far as I know those conversations at least with state officials are not taking place right now.

“Absent action by the governor and the legislature there will still be a lot of individuals, low-income working individual in Texas, parents of children who qualify for health insurance but the parents don’t have affordable coverage, people who are working two or three jobs who don’t have health coverage, and that situation will continue,” she said.

Here are her comments, from Dave:

Asked what could be done to allow people to get more insurance, Abbott said buying and selling it across state lines and allowing more entities to pool together to buy insurance.

Abbott didn’t express an opinion when asked about the prospect of a government shutdown to cut off funding for Obamacare, as talked about by U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, former solicitor general in Abbott’s office. Abbott said the way that would work is “outside of my area of expertise,” although he reiterated, “For taxpayers, it would be good if Obamacare were shut down.”

Abbott was asked during a question-and-answer session with a crowd at his event about immigration reform and Obamacare.

“We have an immigration system that’s competely broken, that’s been broken for decades and has posed immeasurable challenges to the United States of America, and Congress has got to get off the dime and get the job done at creating an immigration system that’s gong to work and bottom line is unless and until they do, the immigration system will continue to pose challenges for America and continue to drive up costs,” Abbott said.
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hen Abbott fielded questions from reporters later and was asked his view on whether immigrants should have a pathway to citizenship, an Abbott staffer intervened, saying the campaign wanted to keep questions on the topic of Obamacare.